You never know who is watching you.

Being a mentor is not always a formal arrangement. My most successful mentor/mentee relationships have happened organically. I think back to the first “boss” that I had in a professional setting. I was a young planner working in a regional commission. My boss was probably 20+ years my senior and had a wife and school-aged children. He understood better than I did the challenges that I would face as a young mother working full time with babies at home. He offered me flexibility in my job before I knew that I needed it. It was a game changer. I worked part time for nine years while my kids grew up. I have no doubt that without his support I would not be where I am today.

Before my first professional position, I worked as a clerk in the telecommunications industry. I made $6 an hour.  An older woman took me under her wing. She often gave me a ride home from work, saving me the bus fare, and occasionally bought my lunch when I couldn’t afford to go out. I remember saying, “Someday I will pay you back.” She responded by telling me, “When you can you should do the same for someone else, and that will be payment enough.”

As time passed, I became the “boss,” or the one in the senior position. I have tried to be the person who positively changes the course of people’s lives in both small and big ways. We don’t always know what the long-term impact of our mentorship has on folks, but I believe it is more important now than ever to be a positive example for young professionals. Many times, I have run into colleagues who have worked with me or for me over time, and I am honored that several of them have said, “You changed my life.”

Some of these folks were my direct reports, while some reported to others—they were not formal mentor relationships. “Jeanine” told me as a 19-year-old high school graduate that she would not take on additional work unless I paid her more money. I helped her learn to trust that reward would follow when she did the right thing and leaned into the work. She went on to earn both an undergraduate and a master’s degree and became a department head. “Anna” told me recently that she had “taken a page out of the Judi Craig playbook” when she volunteered on a local municipal board. “Michael” was someone in whom others saw limited potential. I coached him through the completion of a complicated project and worked with him late on a Sunday night to finish a project before a Monday morning deadline. Michael subsequently became a practice leader in a large consulting firm.

Over the years, I lost track of the woman who advised me to do for others as she had done for me, but I have tried to honor her request. And as much as repaying that has guided me professionally, I also have always believed that we should be a human being first. You never know who is watching you.

Judi Craig Promoted to Lead Woolpert’s Roads and Bridges Market